By MARIO AGUIRRE | STAFF WRITER
EDINBURG — As a freshman last year, PSJA Memorial’s Cruz Gomez placed second at the District 31-6A cross country meet at Ebony Golf Course.
What he learned from that experience, falling 5.2 seconds shy of first place, was to break through the pack much sooner than he did. So in his second attempt at the same course, the sophomore darted past Edinburg North’s Aldo Nava with 1,000 meters to go, beating the runner-up finisher by 26.2 seconds Friday.
“It feels great,” Gomez said. “I trained myself to get that first place, to stay out in front and come out ahead.”
Though Gomez was crowned first, his team finished in sixth place (out of eight teams) at district, and will be the Wolverines’ only representative at the Region IV-6A meet Oct. 29 at Texas A&M Kingsville.
Nava, who clocked in at 16:16.3, helped his team finished in first place with 39 points, ahead of PSJA High (67) and Edinburg High (88). The senior improved on his 2015 time by 14.8 seconds, coming in fifth place. He was one of four Cougars runners on Friday to finish in the top 10, along with Juan Santana-Charriez (16:19.2, fourth), Joshua Doria (16:30.4, seventh) and Tristan Peña (16:47.9, 10th).
Edinburg High’s Matthew Perez (16:18.6), who came in third, was the only boys runner from his program to finish in the top 10. The team will, nonetheless, advance to regionals, as well. Perez topped improved last year’s time by 40.3 seconds.
Gomez said he wasn’t expecting the type of winds that brushed through the meet Friday, but was able to overcome it by “going harder” than he typically does. Last year he finished sixth at regionals and 13th at state, and was encouraged he would do better following Friday’s outcome.
Despite a gash in his leg that forced him to sit out two meets this season, Gomez was still able to compete in five, winning three of those (Falfurrias, Tri-City, Zapata).
In the girls division, Edinburg North’s Beth Ramos (18:12.7) won for a second straight year. The senior came finished 1 minute, 10 seconds ahead of Edinburg High’s Vianney Sanchez (19:31.7), the second-place finisher. PSJA High’s Anna Sanchez (19:38.7) came in third.
Ramos fell nine seconds short of her personal-best time this year, and 17 seconds behind her career-best finish. Ramos has been slowed by a nagging hip injury dating back to freshman year, limiting her to just four meets all season prior to Friday. She won three of those meets and came in 14th at the McNeil Invitational.
“It’s still bothering me,” Ramos said of her hip. “I just have to work with it. I have to run differently. It frustrates me because I want to get the speed in. For me, myself, I’m a distance runner. I have a slow twitch, so I have to work on my speed even more. But I can’t do that because every time I do, it gets really bad and I have to take days off. So we just do distance. That’s as much as we could go right now.
“Last year it was tougher. I was coming off injuries, so it hurt more. This year it’s been better. Not where I want it to be, but better.”
Ramos’ Edinburg North team finished fifth with 123 points. Edinburg High (57), PSJA Memorial (67) and PSJA North (78) rounded out the top three.